Howard Frank: Hey, PennDOT! You've got to do better than this

A death trap is waiting in Tannersville, and a few signs won't fix the problem

For as long as I can remember, the Route 715 entrance to Interstate 80 East in Tannersville has been a nightmare. It's a heavily traveled thoroughfare for shoppers at The Crossings Premium Outlets stores, many of them out-of-towners unfamiliar with our roads.

President John F. Kennedy announced his goal of sending a man to the moon in 1961.

Eight years later, we did it. America harnessed its two most valuable resources, ingenuity and initiative, to achieve this remarkable feat.

Apparently, the space agency must have fewer rules than the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

For as long as I can remember, the Route 715 entrance to Interstate 80 East in Tannersville has been a nightmare.

It's a heavily traveled thoroughfare for shoppers at The Crossings Premium Outlets stores, many of them out-of-towners unfamiliar with our roads.

Making the turn correctly depends less on skill and more on the alignment of the moon, the stars and whether I put my socks on in the right order that day.

The entrance was built, like many, with an adjoining exit, divided by a concrete barrier. It's easy to mistakenly turn into the exit ramp, particularly if you're traveling south on Route 715.

Doubt it?

We sent a photographer to take a photo of the ramp, and within 30 minutes, he caught a motorist entering the exit.

Call it Confusion Junction.

Route 715 southbound both curves and banks away from the entrance ramp. Making matters worse, the entrance/exit ramp itself is sloped downward. You cannot see the roadway or the concrete barrier dividing the two sides until you're already on top of it.

Or on the wrong side of it.

Oh, there is a "Wrong Way" sign posted on the exit ramp facing Route 715. Unfortunately, it's about 50 yards down the ramp. By the time you see it, you've got 50 mph traffic aimed at your forehead.

And yes, there's now a "Do Not Enter" sign on the left of the exit on Route 715 that was installed after the Pocono Record first spotlighted this issue Oct. 22. And to its credit, PennDOT on Thursday did install a "Keep Right" sign after we found the previous one snapped at the base of the center barrier.

But consider this: PennDOT first got a complaint about the poor signage from a concerned motorist on Oct. 5. So it took PennDOT two weeks to erect the "Do Not Enter" sign and another two weeks to replace the "Keep Right" sign?

Heck, I can train my dog to serve Swedish meatballs in less time.

The real issue is that the roadway is engineered so poorly, it will take more than a couple of signs to keep someone from getting hurt or killed at that intersection.

Sure, there's a multimillion-dollar federal proposal to straighten out the whole intersection, but that plan has been knocking around for half a decade, for crying out loud. Meanwhile, there are immediate temporary measures that could avert trouble.

I'm no traffic engineer, but our editorial Wednesday pointed out some commonsense solutions: How about extending the concrete median barrier? Adding larger on- and off-ramp signs? Painting some oversized arrows so it's clearer where you have to go? Some better lighting wouldn't hurt, either.

I understand the complexity of getting things done in an organization the size of PennDOT.

After all, it has more than 11,000 employees and almost 200 offices. But lives are at stake.

Photographic proof of cars going the wrong way into an exit should signal the need for a sense of urgency.